Nic led a project for the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) to update analysis from previous studies on the cost and productivity trends in regulated network industries, and other sectors of the GB economy, which could help inform regulatory decisions on Network Rail's five-year price control.

The report analysed a number of different unit cost and productivity measures. The report was produced as part of the initial phase of work for the periodic review of Network Rail to set access charges and outputs for the period 2014-2019. Our analysis included an update of changes over time in real unit operating expenditure (RUOE) in other regulated network industries, such as electricity distribution, in line with previous work for ORR by other consultants. In addition, we analysed EU KLEMS data (a sector-level economic dataset) and other sources to assess historical changes in a number of different measures related to productivity and unit costs. We also provided a review of regulatory precedent regarding efficiency assumptions and an analysis of the approach used by ORR to set Network Rail's efficiency assumptions at the previous review.